Why Ghana's intellectually disabled athletes must be at 2017 World Winter Games
In less than two weeks, some of our intellectually disabled athletes from the Dzorwulu Special School in Accra will be joining over 2,700 Special Olympics athletes from 107 countries in Austria to showcase their potentials in various sports disciplines.
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However, our Special Olympics athletes from Dzorwulu will be participating only in floorball during the Austria 2017 World Winter Games scheduled between March 14 and 25 this year.
Floorball is a game played with sticks like hockey, but the difference is that, plastic sticks and plastic balls are used instead. Unlike hockey, however, the ball is played continuously even if it crosses the margin lines on the playing field, but the rules are the same as hockey.
In the case of penalty kick, however, the ball is placed at the centre of the pitch and the player taking it controls the ball from the line to the vital area before striking at goal while the goalkeeper defends by stopping it from entering the net.
Penalty kicks in floorball are, therefore, very exciting. This is because they demand great skills to slot the ball into the goal post which is much more smaller than football or hockey.
This is the type of game our 12 selected athletes from Dzorwulu Special School, who started camping late last year, will be competing in against their counterparts across the world during the Austria World Winter Games.
By nurturing and developing their potential and participating in such high class sports disciplines, our intellectually disabled athletes would not only be breaking the jinx surrounding their intellectual disabilities, which make it difficult for them to mingle freely with society, but also prove that they have the ability and capacity to do what anybody can do, provided they would be offered opportunity to do so.
At the Aviation Social Centre in Accra last Saturday, February 25, 2017, these athletes engaged the International Floorball Team, (IFT) made up of nationals from Germany, America, Canada and Ghana, in a friendly international match.
After 45 minutes display of their skills in handling the plastic sticks , as well as the defensive and striking prowess, the athletes were held in high esteem when they defeated their stoutly built and able-bodied opponents 1-0 on penalties. This was after the two sides had tied 6-6 in regulation time.
During the 2015 Special Olympics World Games held in Los Angeles in the United States of America, the Board of Special Olympics Ghana should have presented 24 footballers in both the male and female divisions, as well as eight athletes to represent Ghana in the tournament.
However, lack of funds compelled the Board to abandon the football team, and four other athletes , thus only four athletes had the opportunity to participate in that world class tournament.
The good news was that, the four who represented Ghana, made up of two females and two males, brought home four silver medals.
One of the girls, Princess Ayin from Three Kings Special School in the Volta Region, became the toast of the dignitaries in Los Angeles when she won silver in both the 100m and 200m events.
Isaac Quansah Okyere, who is currently part of the floorball team, also won silver in the 200m event . He again won silver in the special dancing competition organised to entertain the dignitaries during the tournament.
The outstanding performances exhibited by Ghana during the Germany 2006 World Cup, the South Africa 2010 World Cup and the Brazil 2010 World Cup tournaments, as well at the first class skills sold by Ghanaian youth during youth tournaments over the years, caused the participating teams in Los Angeles to yearn for Ghana to rob shoulders with other participating teams during the football matches, but it never came to pass .
This was because prior to the tournament, the Board of Special Olympics Ghana made conscious effort to organise series of competitions for Special Schools and selected players who excelled to represent Ghana in both the male and female football teams, but lack of financial support from government and corporate bodies forced the Board to drop both the male and female football teams.
Had the Board won the financial support from government and other corporate bodies and succeeded in sending the football teams to Los Angeles two years ago, a different story would have been told.
It is a fact that the stigma attached to intellectually disabled babies force their parents to either abandon them or hide them from society, making it impossible for such unfortunate parents to tap the potential that such babies might have been endowed with.
Ironically, some parents in Africa and the developed world have realised that notwithstanding the defects of intellectual disability affecting their children, they go the extra mile to nurture and develop their potentials in sports more meaningfully, and eventually transform them into first class sports personalities.
In an article published at the website of Special Olympics, it was reported that in China, people with intellectual disabilities could face stigma from the start of life.
According to the publication, “the parents of one Li Xiang found a ray of hope when Li was old enough to join Special Olympics. For the first time, his family began to see ways that Li could succeed.
“Sports helped him physically and motivated him to improve. At age 11, Li was one of the youngest competitors at the Los Angeles 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games. He won a gold medal, two silver and two bronze medals in artistic gymnastics. Now, at age 13, he will still be among the youngest competitors at World Games in Austria – taking on a completely new challenge.”
Also reported from the website of Special Olympics was the story about a South African intellectually disabled athlete, Bonang Modise, 21. Born in Dorsberg in the North West province in South Africa, she was reported to have joined Special Olympics South Africa in 2011 at the age of 16 and started training, as well as competing in her two favourite sports: athletics and basketball.
“Being part of Special Olympics has been good for me, because I understand the importance of being proud of who I am. I may have a disability but it won’t stop me from being the best!", Bonang said.
She said that the Special Olympics Athlete Leadership programme had helped unleash her leadership potential. Bonang also mentioned that her proud moment was when she was selected to be part of the 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games to compete in athletics.
Bonang said she competed exceptionally during the World Summer Games and returned victorious, as she has a lot of medals to show of all her achievements, adding that “I cannot wait to represent South Africa in sports across the globe, and compete with the likes of “Caster Semenya”.
With barely 10 days before embarking on another trip to represent Ghana, our intellectually disabled athletes are still knocking on the doors of government and corporate Ghana to support them financially, thereby motivating them to excel in Austria.
With such support, their colleagues who did not have the opportunity to be in Austria would be motivated to nurture and develop their potentials and participate in future international tournaments.
In that way, they would not only be shedding the stigma attached with their predicament as social outcasts, but would also be acquiring other skills that would dignify their lifestyles in a meaningful manner.
